HUSSEIN`S DARK SIDE ENSHROUDED

Stephen FranklinCHICAGO TRIBUNE

An imposing collection of portaits of Saddam Hussein, a master in the cult of personality, loom side by side on both sides of a busy street in downtown Baghdad.

The tall, slightly stocky leader appears in every possible pose as the ultimate Arab leader: as religious leader, military leader, shrewd hunter, cigar-smoking diplomat and politician, and loving father to his people.

What they don`t show is the image of Saddam Hussein that most Iraqis also know but dare not utter carelessly in public unless they want to face the feared moukhabarat, the secret police.

They don`t show him as the ruthless leader who ordered the execution of 21 members of his ruling Baath Party in 1979 soon after he took power, some of them close friends. He also ordered a Cabinet member, Health Minister Riyadh Ibrahim, killed in 1982 after he challenged Hussein at a Cabinet meeting.

As Iraq`s absolute leader for the last 11 years, Hussein, who is known mostly by his first name, has taken Iraq through a costly and unpopular eight- year war with Iran, asserted himself and his country as the savior of the Arab masses and thrilled politically frustrated Arabs by refusing to back down from the U.S. military.

In the crowded coffee houses and poverty-stricken villages of the Arab world, these are awesome deeds for the son of landless peasants.

As he is shown patting the heads of young Westerners held hostage, he is really invoking the key to his success among Iraqis-his reputation as ''the giver and taker of lives,'' says Laurie Mylroie, a fellow at Harvard University`s Center for Middle East Studies.

His 1979 blow at his colleagues is an example of this, she says.

After reading out a list of accusations against his colleagues, they were led away by police in front of a packed hall. And once they were gone, the hall broke out into cheers of ''Long live Saddam,'' Mylroie said.

''The others were shouting because they were happy they were not the ones to be carried off. That is how he has managed so long,'' she said.

For a people accustomed to endless turmoil, Hussein provides another attraction for Iraqis. He is the strongman who has restored certainty in a crisis, Middle East experts say. Except in this case, the crisis never ends.

Indeed, he has come a long way from the small village in central Iraq about 100 miles north of Baghdad where he was born 53 years ago. The village is near the town of Tikrit, and his roots are important because he has surrounded himself with relatives or associates from Tikrit.

An even more important network are those who belong to his tribe, the abu Nasr, and his own family group, the Begat. Iraq`s political and economic elite are filled with people from these groups put there by Saddam Hussein.

He was orphaned at an early age and raised by an uncle who owned a melon farm. His uncle, Khairallah Talfah, had joined a failed pro-Nazi uprising in 1941 against the British, who then held influence over Iraq`s Hashemite rulers, and was arrested. His uncle`s bitter experience and hatred of Western imperialist powers had an impact on Hussein.

He went to Baghdad at 18 to finish his education, and soon became entrenched in underground political activities that led to his joining a failed coup against King Faisal II and Prime Minister Nuri Said in 1956. It was at school that he came in contact with the Baath Party and the program of Arab unity and socialism he has embraced to this day.

Three years later he was one of 10 men picked by the Baath Party to assassinate the new Iraqi leader, military strongman Abdul Karim Kassem. They killed Kassem`s driver and an aide, but failed to kill Kassem. Most of the plotters were caught, but not Hussein, who was shot in the leg and fled on a donkey to Syria.

The tale of his escape reached Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who invited him to study and live in Egypt. He started to study at the University of Cairo law school, but he returned to Baghdad in 1963. His study of law at Baghdad`s al-Mustaniriyah University was cut short when he went underground along with others wanted by the regime.

He was eventually caught and spent two years in prison, before escaping and returning to a life in the underground as head of internal security for the Baath Party. When the party took power in a bloodless coup in July 1968, he emerged from the shadows and began his ascent toward the political leadership of his country.

He also began to collect the credentials fitting to his new position. He received his law degree by showing up at the final exam in Baghdad with a pistol in hand and several bodyguards.

He likewise received a number of top military positions although he hadn`t worked his way up through the ranks.

From his marriage to his first cousin, Sajida Khairallah Talfah, whom he wed in 1963, he has two sons and two daughters. He has another daughter from a second wife.